


Deer in Headlights

by owlaholic68



Category: Monsterhearts (Roleplaying Game), Original Work
Genre: Between Episodes, Canon-Typical Violence, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Foursome - F/F/F/F, Gunshot Wounds, Healing, Introspection, Mood Swings, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Polyamory, Sabine is just assembling a gang of girlfriends, Separation Anxiety, Swearing, Trauma, Yes they DO watch the Muppet movies, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:01:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25639927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlaholic68/pseuds/owlaholic68
Summary: Sabine’s twenty-four hours after the Mayes Labs incident.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Kudos: 4





	Deer in Headlights

A gunshot wound to the leg should make one sleep for days, but Sabine bolts awake only a few hours after they get home from the hospital.

“They” being her, Bonnie, Elsie, and Celeste. Sabine had _insisted_ that they all come over to her place to crash for however many hours of sleep they could get.

“I need you with me,” she had whispered to Bonnie in the car ride. Bonnie was never enthusiastic about things so it was hard to tell how she was feeling, but it was safe to assume that she would have things to take care of. Things to clean up, people from the Acquired Ascendants to manage. Priorities more important than little whiny Sabine. “Stay, Bon, please. Just for a little while.”

Bonnie had stroked her hair and said nothing, but she had stayed.

Elsie was less difficult to convince. Sabine has the sinking feeling that Elsie would follow her no matter what and that was too much to deal with.

When Sabine awakens with a gasp, Elsie’s eyes snap open mere seconds later.

The room is dark, too dark, the streetlights filtering through the window and did Sabine remember to lock the window – did anyone even remember to lock the fucking _door-_

“Ssh,” Elsie soothes. She presses Sabine down when she tries to get up to check. “Ssh, it’s okay Sabine, it’s okay-”

“The door – the door, is it – is it locked?” Sabine sucks in a heavy breath. Next to her, Bonnie slumbers and Celeste does the same at the foot of the bed. “Elsie, Elsie…”

“I’ll go check.” Elsie tucks a piece of hair behind Sabine’s ear and carefully gets up without disturbing anyone else. She tries the door handle. It doesn’t move. “There. Locked.”

“The – the window too?” Sabine hates how little and scared her voice sounds.

Elsie checks the window. Locked tight. A makeshift stop is shoved against it in case someone tries to break the lock like happened before.

“Anything else?”

Sabine shakes her head no. Her heartrate is finally beginning to slow.

Elsie sits back down on the edge of the bed.

“W-Wait.” Sabine lowers her eyes. “There’s an old nightlight in the top drawer. Could – could you plug it in?”

“Of course. That would be nice to have on right now.” Elsie plugs in the nightlight, diffusing warmth through the room.

The bit of light melts the shadows so they don’t look like people anymore. It warms Bonnie’s cold face and she looks as peaceful and sweet as a vampire could look. Sabine checks on Celeste too – still sleeping, curled up in a ball with her broken arm awkwardly sticking out, unruly hair over her face. Looking young and innocent.

A hand on her face makes Sabine turn. The hand is Elsie’s and it’s wiping away Sabine’s tears. Then Elsie’s strong arms are pulling Sabine into a loose hug, gentle enough that Sabine could pull away if she wanted to.

But oh, she wants this hug. She _needs_ this hug. Leans into it with her full weight until she’s hugging Elsie so tightly that she almost can’t breathe or maybe that’s just because she’s sobbing and trying to be quiet about it because the others are still sleeping and she doesn’t want to wake them-

“Shh, shh, it’s okay.” Elsie kisses Sabine’s cheek. “We’re all here now, you’re safe Sabine, you’re safe…”

Sabine nods and buries her head in Elsie’s shoulder. The wonderful thing about Elsie is that she’s big and one of her hugs can encompass Sabine so thoroughly that nothing could dare penetrate that protection. Her grip is careful, too, mindful of Sabine’s physical injuries while her soft growls, nearly purrs, help heal her emotional hurt.

They sit there for a long time. Elsie eventually shifts Sabine so that they’re lying down together. She arranges pillows and blankets so Sabine’s bad leg is elevated. She positions herself so she’s curled on top of Sabine.

Like a little fort over her. Sabine finally relaxes: her shoulders first, then she stops tensing her legs, then finally she lets herself sink into the mattress. Turns her face away from the window and into Elsie’s chest. Unclenches her hand from the sheets, smooths out the wrinkles, and holds Elsie’s hand as she ultimately succumbs to sleep.

* * *

Morning brings questions and explanations and logistics.

It also brings breakfast: Bonnie runs out to go do important things and comes back with food.

Pancakes and waffles and meat and fruit: a special treat just for Sabine.

But she doesn’t feel like eating any of it. Whines and cries and cajoles Elsie into eating all of her meat. Gets Celeste to finish her fruit and half of her pancakes.

“You need to eat,” Bonnie hisses, trying to shove a forkful of waffle into Sabine’s mouth. “You need it for strength.”

“I don’t wanna!” Sabine squirms and turns her head away. She ineffectively tries to push back Bonnie’s hand. “I’m not hungry!”

Bonnie turns to her condescending attitude. She cradles Sabine’s chin. “Just one more little bite? One more piece and I’ll leave you alone…”

Sabine doesn’t take the bait. She pouts and glares up at Bonnie. “I said I’m not – _mmph!”_

She finishes eating her reluctantly taken bite. Bonnie looks altogether too smug.

“Fuck off,” she mutters when she’s done.

“Aw, you didn’t take your painkillers yet this morning, did you?” Bonnie fake-pouts to match Sabine. “The doctor said you should take them with food.”

Sabine snatches her painkillers and antibiotics from the bedside table and swallows them, still glaring until Bonnie leans in to kiss her on the forehead. Then the glare breaks and she starts crying. She – she doesn’t _want_ to fight with Bonnie, not really, she just feels awful.

“I – I’m sorry, Bon, I – I don’t mean to be difficult, I really don’t!”

“I know.” Bonnie gives her a final peck on the head before releasing her. “I’m going to go put the rest of this in the fridge downstairs for later. I’ll leave you to get dressed.” She holds up a hand at Sabine opening her mouth to protest. “You’ll feel worse if you sit in your pajamas all day. At least change shirts. Maybe put your hair up. It’ll make you feel better.”

She goes to leave and Sabine’s heart leaps into the back of her throat. Celeste is in the bathroom washing herself with a sponge bath and Elsie is downstairs helping her mother with something, probably moving boxes due to her mom’s bad shoulder. If Bonnie leaves then she’ll be alone-

“What?” Bonnie is frowning, paused with her hand on the doorknob.

“No, wait, B-Bonnie, please – please don’t…” Sabine sniffles. She reaches but Bonnie’s too far away. “Don’t, don’t leave me alone, please!”

Bonnie sighs. It’s not a pleased sound. “I’ll be back in a minute.” She leaves and closes the door behind her.

“Bonnie!” Sabine hits the bed. Her breathing starts to stutter. “Bonnie, you – you’d better come back right _fucking now! Bonnie!”_

But she does not return for several minutes, at which point Sabine has worked herself into a furious panic attack.

“How _dare_ you!” is the first thing Sabine screams at her when she comes back in.

Bonnie says nothing but raises an eyebrow – at the attitude, at the pillows thrown in the general direction of the door.

“I – I asked you not to leave and you did it anyways and I – I fucking _hate you!”_ Sabine takes a throw pillow from the bed and, well, throws it. It lands pathetically at Bonnie’s feet. Her anger is tempered by the fact that tears are streaming down her cheeks. “I was scared and I needed you and – and I asked you to stay and you didn’t, Bon, you didn’t stay and you didn’t listen! Don’t you _ever_ do that a-again! Don’t, p-please-” Her voice breaks.

Another sigh from Bonnie. She comes over and wraps her arms around Sabine, pulling her head into Bonnie’s chest. “You’re overwrought.”

She patiently lets Sabine cry, threading her cold fingers through Sabine’s hair and humming as if she’s listening.

Sabine’s an emotional yo-yo right now: peaceful one moment and then raging the next, calm and then bawling her eyes out and she can’t stop. She clutches Bonnie and weeps on her shoulder until she’s spent and tired.

“Take a nap,” Bonnie suggests. She grabs a handful of tissues from the bedside table and pats Sabine’s cheeks dry. Less meticulous and attentive than Elsie but still soft and caring. “You need sleep.”

“Yes, Bon. S-Sorry…” Sabine lets Bonnie change her into a fresh pair of pajamas and maneuver her into a sleeping position. She yawns: the painkillers she’s on right now are strong and make her drowsy. “You’re staying?”

Bonnie sits next to her on the bed. Almost close enough to touch. “I’ll be here. Or someone else will be if I need to leave.”

“Promise?”

That elicits a smile. Bonnie reaches out and allows Sabine to hold her hand. “Promise.”

Sabine manages a smile in return. She tries to go to sleep but keeps tossing and turning.

After an hour of this, she sits up and checks her phone, feeling antsy and restless and annoyed.

“I thought I told you to go to sleep,” Bonnie mutters. She’s still sitting there, scrolling through her own phone. Looking very unamused.

“I can’t,” Sabine whines. “I – I’m thirsty, Bon.”

Bonnie rolls her eyes. “I’ll go get you some water.”

Sabine grabs her hand when she gets up. That bad panicky feeling is coming back. Celeste is back in the room but is sleeping at the foot of the bed. She was on strong medication too and doesn’t look like she’d be waking anytime soon. If something were to happen-

“Sabine, I can either stay here with you or I can go get you water.” Bonnie pries Sabine’s fingers off her wrist. “Which one do you want?”

Her annoyed face becomes blurry. Sabine hides her face and wipes her eyes. What is she but a – a worthless – “Just be quick,” she cries. “I – I’m sorry…”

To her credit, Bonnie is fast. She’s back in less than a minute with a big glass of cool water. Sabine takes it and greedily drinks – the whole “thirsty” ploy wasn’t a total lie. She gets through half of the glass and slows down, cradling it and taking little sips to avoid Bonnie’s eyes.

She gives the glass back to Bonnie, who puts it on the bedside table and then sits down again with her back against the headboard. Sabine hesitantly scoots until she can lay her head down in Bonnie’s lap. Bonnie allows it.

Almost out of habit, Bonnie’s hand moves to Sabine’s hair and starts stroking it, slowly and gently just like she likes. It makes Sabine almost feel like she cares.

It’s such a mundane normal action for her that Sabine’s eyes slip shut mere minutes later and she sleeps soundly until lunch.

* * *

She dozes some more until dinner, when Bonnie promises that Sabine can pick the movie for the night if she eats a whole plate of takeout lasagna. That spurs her to force herself to eat more until she only has a few bites left and promises that she’ll finish it while watching the movie.

The _movies,_ she should have said, because they end up marathoning the Muppet movies: old movies from over a thousand years ago.

“But classics, absolute classics of cinema,” Sabine argues. “The most important movie series to come out of that century.”

“If you insist,” Bonnie murmurs. She looks like she’s already regretting her earlier promise.

While the opening credits roll, Elsie does a lap of the room and verifies that the doors and windows are locked, making sure that Sabine is watching her do it. Then she settles on the bed next to Bonnie but about a foot away from her. She gently moves Sabine’s leg so the bad one is elevated in her lap.

Speaking of laps, Sabine is draped across Bonnie’s and Celeste is laying down with her head in _Sabine’s_ lap. It’s a complicated puzzle of people who Sabine guesses don’t want to touch _each other,_ but who all want to cuddle Sabine at the same time.

Celeste falls asleep during the first act of the very first movie. Sabine takes the opportunity to play with Celeste’s hair and occasionally stroke her soft cheek – Celeste is soft in all the right places (cheeks, tummy, hair, etc.) and sharp in the other correct spots (horns, teeth, etc.). And glittery in every other way.

Speaking of glitter, Sabine twists her wrist back and forth so she can admire the way the shifting lights of the movie catch and twinkle in the bracelet that Celeste got her. It sits against the bracelet that Bonnie gave her, the one with the deer charm.

That piece of jewelry was much more plain than the one from Celeste, but it was more personal – Bonnie gave it to her after their first fight, though Sabine would _hardly_ call it a fight, more like Sabine just being ornery and whiny.

But it was still special because of that – the earliest gift from Bonnie other than food. The first _real_ gift. Sabine has a feeling that Celeste is much more liberal with gifts, and hers are so _nice…_

In the idle bracelet twirling, the deer charm sparkles and shines.

But the light is wrong. The deer’s face looks _terrified._

A deer: Sabine had wondered back then. Bonnie had never called her “dear” so it wasn’t a reference to that, and she had said that Sabine tasted like honey so it wasn’t about the way she tasted so Sabine really wasn’t sure at the time what it was about other than it was adorable and sweet.

The deer is prey, though.

Defenseless and helpless and worthless (…bag of nothing, Sabine’s mind auto-completes). Valuable only to be hunted and slaughtered if she was fed and fattened enough.

“Sabine?” Elsie takes her hand.

“Hm?” Sabine frowns and quickly schools her expression.

“You’re shaking. Are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah.” Sabine lowers her hand back into Celeste’s hair. “I think maybe – maybe my painkillers are wearing off a little. It’s nothing. I’ll be fine, I’ll go to sleep in a few.”

Elsie smiles. “Yeah, good idea. I think I will go to sleep soon too.”

Sabine settles back in but when everyone’s attention is diverted, she slips off the deer bracelet branding her as prey. She tucks it in her pajama pocket and drifts off surrounded by love and affection and…Bonnie.

* * *

But despite the warmth of her waking hours, Sabine dreams of the Labs.

The children they rescued are younger in her dream. In rougher shape, some missing limbs or other body parts. Or some with extra and those kids are worse. Sabine tries not to look at them too much when she helps them out of their cells.

In the dream, too, she’s alone. Mio and Ophelia aren’t there and neither are Emmett and Bunny or anyone else.

Except for Celeste. Celeste is there by her side until she’s not and until Sabine whirls, dream-vision spinning at the edges.

That man is holding her again. That – that Warrior, if you could call him that, has a tight grip on Celeste’s neck. Not a Warrior: Warriors _protect_ people. Warriors don’t kidnap kids. Warriors don’t shoot innocent civilians.

The _Hunter_ coldly grins at Sabine. She reaches for a weapon but she doesn’t have one and she can’t do anything but cry and beg for him to stop and-

And instead of breaking Celeste’s arm, this time he takes her neck in both hands and cruelly twists, snapping Celeste’s neck and tossing her limp corpse to the side like she’s _nothing._

Sabine gasps and tries to rush forward but she’s grabbed and dragged backwards.

“She’ll make a fine test subject,” Jasmine Ward whispers, soft voice purring into Sabine’s ear as she drags her back into that awful lab. “She’s strong. But not strong enough, is she?”

The _is she? Is she?_ Echoes through the hallway. Sabine twists and squirms and tries to call for help but she can’t make a noise and she can’t do anything to save herself-

She jerks awake to a terrifying _bang_ on the window. Awakens and screams bloody murder.

It’s dark and she can’t see and – and a hand slams over her mouth.

“Shh, shh,” Bonnie hisses and it takes long seconds before Sabine realizes that it’s just her.

The lights come on, Elsie by the light switch looking half-feral from the fright of Sabine’s scream. Celeste groggily sitting up, reaching for Sabine with her good arm and holding her hand, warbling something incomprehensible but comforting.

Sabine is still in full fight-or-flight-or-panic mode. She fights uselessly against Bonnie’s tight grip holding her down.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Elsie sits on the bed and helps Sabine sit up, cradled very awkwardly now against Bonnie’s chest.

Bonnie hesitates to let go of her. “Are you going to scream again?”

Sabine shakes her head no. Bonnie releases her grip. “The- the w-window,” she gasps. “There was – there was a _n-noise…”_

“Check the window,” Bonnie quietly orders.

Elsie stands and checks. “Look like a bird hit it,” she reports. “Maybe an owl. Nothing to worry about. Still locked, Sabine.”

“There, still locked. Anything else?” Bonnie looks exhausted: this is the second night in a row that Sabine has woken her up.

“I – I had a bad dream that – that they, at the Labs, they-” Sabine breaks into a sob. She shakes her head: it’s too fresh in her mind to talk about.

“They can’t get you here,” Celeste whispers. Finally speaking up. She looks to Bonnie for permission before touching Sabine’s cheek. “Not with these two here with you. Nothing’s going to happen. It’s okay.”

Sabine nods but can’t manage a _thank you_ for the reassurance. She squeezes Celeste’s hand and lays back down. “I – I’ll try to go b-back to sleep. I – I’m sorry…”

Elsie lays down next to her, nearly touching Bonnie but being extra careful not to do so. “You don’t have to apologize, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay, just rest. Don’t worry about it.”

Bonnie sighs. She’s full of tired sighs lately when she’s not full of weird paranoid energy. But she dutifully cuddles Sabine and whispers platitudes until Sabine finally, eventually, falls asleep for the rest of the night and does not dream, not even good dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> Me ever since that session: I need to write something about this. I Need to write Something about this! I need to ramble about Sabine's severe emotional trauma from this incident!


End file.
